Oliver Roethig, UNI Europa Regional Secretary is one of the high level attendees of the UNI Europa ICTS Outsourcing Project Workshop taking place in Brussels today.
The workshop is the main event of an EU funded project looking at the different outsourcing flows and strategies of companies in the ICT sector. The increasing tendency to outsource specific services and job functions heavily impacts working conditions – they are often a lot worse than the ones in the ‘mother’ company, salaries are lower and collective agreements are not transferred. It is also very difficult to engage and organise with workers in those companies – many reasons for trade unions to lay a focus on how to improve conditions for workers in the outsourced companies.
Participants today are discussing the analysis and findings collected by the Austrian institute FORBA as well as concrete organising experiences around outsourcing in Europe – to better understand the challenges and possibilities on organising in outsourced companies and help affiliates to develop their own strategies.
Oliver Roethig said, welcoming the participants in Brussels: ‘It is absolutely vital for us to examine the outsourcing practices in the ICT sector as it is the one on the forefront of technological and also organisational developments. I am looking forward to some interesting insights and fruitful discussions today. I am sure that the findings of this project are not only relevant for the ICT sector, but can help us understand the outsourcing strategies of multinational companies in general and thus contribute to UNI Europa’s work in other sectors we represent.’
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Report Understanding the impact of outsourcing in the ICT sector to strengthen the capacity of workers’ organisations to address labour market changes and to improve social dialogue (IMPOS)